FRENCH
actor Benoit Constant Coquelin, known as Coquelin aîné,
was born at Boulogne on the 23rd of January 1841. He was originally
intended to follow his father's trade of baker (he was once called
un boulanger manqué by a hostile critic), but his
love of acting led him to the Conservatoire, where he entered
Regnier's class in 1859. He won the first prize for comedy within
a year, and made his debut on the 7th of December 1860 at the
Comédie Française as the comic valet, Gros-René
in Molière's
Dépit amoureux, but his first great success was
as Figaro, in the following year. He was made sociétaire
in 1864, and during the next twenty-two years he created at the
Français the leading parts in forty-four new plays, including
Théodore de Banville's Gringoire (1867), Paul Ferrier's
Tabarin (1871), Émile
Augier's Paul Forestier (1871) L'Étrangère
(1876) by the younger Dumas,
Charles Lomon's Jean Dacier (1877), Edward Pailleron's
Le Monde où l'on s'ennuie (1881), Erckmann and
Chatrian's Les Rantzau (1884). In consequence of a dispute
with the authorities over the question of his right to make provincial
tours in France he resigned in 1886. Three years later, however,
the breach was healed; and after a successful series of tours
in Europe and the United States he rejoined the Comédie
Française as pensionnaire in 1890. It was during
this period that he took the part of Labussière, in the
production of Sardou's Thermidor, which was interdicted
by the government after three performances. In 1892 he broke
definitely with the Comédie Française, and toured
for some time through the capitals of Europe with a company of
his own. In 1895 he joined the Renaissance theatre in Paris,
and played there until he became director of the Porte Saint
Martin in 1897. Here he won successes in Edmond
Rostand's Cyrano
de Bergerac (1897) Émile Bergerat's Plus que
reine (1899), Catulle Mendès' Scarron (1905),
and Alfred Capus and Lucien Descaves' L'Attentat (1906).
In 1900 he toured in America with Sarah
Bernhardt, and on their return continued with his old colleague
to appear in L'Aiglon, at the Théâtre Sarah
Bernhardt. He was rehearsing for the creation of the leading
part in Rostand's Chantecler, which he was to produce,
when he died suddenly in Paris, on the 27th of January 1909.
Coquelin was an Officier de l'Instruction Publique and of the
Legion of Honour. He published L'Art et le comédien
(1880), Molière et le misanthrope (1881), essays
on Eugene Manuel (1881) and Sully-Prudhomme
(1882), L'Arnolphe de Molière (1882), Les Comédiens
(1882), L'Art de dire le monologue (with his brother,
1884), Tartuffe (1884), and L'Art du comédien (1894).
His son, Jean Coquelin, was also an actor, first at the Théâtre
Française (début, 1890), later at the Renaissance,
and then at the Porte Saint Martin, where he created the part
of Raigoné in Cyrano de Bergerac.

This article was originally
published in Encyclopedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition.
F.T.M. Cambridge: University Press, 1911.